


Curiosity

by nerdcultureclash



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Fluff, High School AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-30
Updated: 2015-05-30
Packaged: 2018-04-02 01:49:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,205
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4041037
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nerdcultureclash/pseuds/nerdcultureclash
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ron Weasley is squeaking his way through life at Hogwarts Prep, satisfied with barely passing all his classes and avoiding his clingy girlfriend until he runs into Hermione Granger.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Curiosity

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fic so please be kind!

Ron Weasley was having a monumentally bad day. First, his perfect older brother Percy had come back to visit Hogwarts Prep and, of course, had chosen to walk right into Ron’s remedial history class.Ancient Professor Binns had gone into rapture over Percy’s brilliance and had loudly complained that it was a shame that genius didn’t run in the family while Ron tried very hard to wish he was not there. In his next class, Professor Snape assigned him three days of detention for accidentally spilling hydrochloric acid during his chemistry lab, which meant no football practice for the rest of the week and that he would have to pay for the lab equipment that had been eaten by the acid. The chants of “Weasley the King of Klutzes” had followed him throughout the halls for the rest of the day, making him so anxious that he dropped his tray at lunch, prompting more laughter. Mortified and hungry, he slunk into the senior lounge and flopped into an armchair next to Harry.

“This day cannot fucking get any worse,” he moaned, waving away Dean McGonagall’s warning about cursing.

Harry brushed the hair out of his eyes then returned to furiously typing on his laptop. “It could always get worse, you know that. For instance - “

Right then, Seamus burst in through the door. “Oi, Ron! Lavender’s coming this way and she’s been asking for you.”

Ron jumped to his feet. “Where is she?” he asked wildly.

Seamus peered out the door. “Coming up out of the stairwell.”

“Fuck!” Ron sighed.

 

“Language, Weasley!” McGonagall warned. “That’s one more demerit for you.”  
  


“Yeah, yeah,” he waved a hand. “Charge it to my account. Guys, I’m  not in the mood to deal with her right now. You’ve got to help me get out of this.”

Dean jumped up. “We’ll distract her while you slip out and run the other way.”  
  


“How will you distract her?”

He faltered. “Well, I’ll think of something.”

Ron groaned. “What a wonderful plan, but it’s better than nothing. Let’s go.”

Dean ran into the hallway. “Lavender, Lavender! Have you seen my West Ham scarf, you know the one I hung up on my locker? I think that twat Malfoy stole it as a joke.”

Ron pelted down the hallway towards the library, which was rarely frequented by students - especially not by Lavender. He was almost there when Professor Flitwick called out, “Weasley, no running!”

He looked behind him to see if maybe the cry hadn’t reached the other end of the hallway and saw Lavender coming. “Balls,” he muttered and ducked around the tiny professor. “Hide me!”

“What?” Flitwick asked, but Ron was already furiously sprinting towards the library, hoping he would be able to hide in the stacks. He reached for the door and burst inside - and burst into a wall of frizzy hair.

“Oof!” he heard someone say as he fell on the ground.

He rolled over and saw that he had landed on Hermione Granger, valedictorian and nerd extraordinaire. He groaned inwardly, preparing himself for the lecture about breaking school rules that was about to follow.

She patted her hair down, and opened her mouth. “Ronald Weasley, of all the indignities - “

“Shh,” he hissed. “I’m trying to hide from my clingy girlfriend.”

She tilted her head, then nodded. “I see, but that is still no excuse to go breaking so many school rules! They are in place - “

“Quiet,” he roared. “I’m trying to make sure she doesn’t notice me and I can’t do that if you’re bellowing all over the place!”

“If you’re trying to escape notice, you might want to try not shouting then.”

Ron clamped a hand over his mouth and turned around. Sure enough, there was Lavender making steady progress down the hall despite Dean, Harry and Seamus’ frantic attempts at diversions. “Listen,” he said. “Could you please pretend to be my girlfriend just to make her go away?”

She frowned. “That is not very ethical, not to mention that implying that your girlfriend is crazy demonstrates a misogynistic tendency on your part. However, I’m not too fond of Lavender either and I wouldn’t mind participating in this little charade.” She picked up her books and grabbed Ron’s hand.

“Wha-what are you doing?” Ron sputtered.

“I’m holding your hand, that’s what girlfriends do with their boyfriends, right?”

“Oh, you’re right,” he muttered, feeling his ears burning.

 

They walked out of the library in silence until they heard Lavender’s shrill cry of “Won-won!”

Ron groaned. “Way to not take a hint.”

Hermione looked up at him and smiled mischievously. “Do you really want to scare her away?”

Ron nodded, but before he could speak, Hermione had grabbed him by the back of the neck, pulled him down towards her and kissed him so thoroughly he could taste the pumpkin juice on her tongue. They heard Lavender’s footsteps turn and recede down the hall, with the sounds of muffled sobbing, then Hermione abruptly broke off the kiss.

“Well, I think that did the trick,” she said, her voice full of self-satisfaction.

“Th - that...that was amazing!” Ron stuttered. “Where did you learn to do that?”

“Oh, it’s something I’ve been meaning to master for some time. I picked up some techniques from reading my mother’s trashy romance novels. Did you like it? Victor seemed to like it, but a reliable experiment cannot have just one subject. Do you have any feedback for me? I think next time I should use more tongue.”

Ron wanted to answer, but all he could say was “Uhhh…”  
  


“Anyways,” Hermione said. “I really should be studying for my midterms. Good luck with your girlfriend. May I suggest a simple break-up next time?”

She turned around and Ron watched the sway of her skirt as she swished back to the library. He tried to quell the little spark in his stomach that lurched with every one of her steps. “It wasn’t love,” he told himself. It was merely curiosity. He was curious at how well the nerdy bookworm kissed, about the extent of her past with Victor, who had had all the girls at Hogwarts High swooning over him, and he was curious about the goody-goody that seemed to like mischief a bit more than she let on. He continued telling himself that when he returned Hermione’s tentative nods in the hallway he was only being civil and when his usual twenty-minute long bathroom detours took him by the doors of her classes in the honors wing that he just wanted to waste more time. He was only curious about what the library looked like, or at least that was what he told his friends when they asked why he no longer hung out in the senior lounge during his frees. He couldn’t tell them that he was curious about the delight Hermione found in books and what exactly she read that made her smile so brilliantly, buck teeth and all. He spent so much time in the library because he was like one of those nature scientists on the Discovery Channel, looking to observe the wildcat in its natural habitat, and not because he desperately wanted that smile to be directed at him one day.


End file.
